The Vikings in question were Norwegian and Danish (the Danes at that time were still occupying the area known as Scania in what is now southern Sweden) and, in ethnic and linguistic terms, were close to the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Fresians who had preceded them in the invasion of England.

[The same energetic Vikings made their way to the islands of Scotland, to Ireland, to Iceland, to Greenland, to North America and, as "Normans", as far as Sicily and the south of the Italian peninsula. Though they were fierce warriors and uncultured pagans, in the end they made a positive contribution to the political development of mediaeval Europe.]

For several generations (for all intents and purposes until 954), the Vikings controlled the whole of the north-east of England, an area known as the "Danelaw". Their language ("Old Norse") contributed many words and syntactical forms to the evolving English language and was still spoken in the north of England all through the eleventh century (and in remote areas of Scotland until the seventeenth century). Even today traces of Old Norse can be detected, specially in dialect terms in Yorkshire.

England was unified in 954. The "Dane" Cnut (Canute) became King not only of England (in 1016) but also of Denmark (1019) and Norway (1028). This interesting character (to counteract sycophants' stories of his omnipotence, he commanded the tide to withdraw, obviously to no avail) unfortunately died at the age of 40 in 1035. [Had he lived longer, he could have confronted William of Normandy in 1066.]

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